AI Search Visibility for Agencies: A Complete Guide

AI search is changing how consumers discover and choose products. Instead of scrolling through search results or visiting multiple websites, users today are increasingly turning to AI-powered apps like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, Claude, and Google’s AI Overviews. A survey by McKinsey shows that approximately 50% of Google searches today have AI summaries, and this figure is projected to hit 75% by 2028.

If you run a marketing, PR, or content team, you can’t afford to ignore AI search visibility for agencies. Beyond the search engine results page (SERPs), your client brands need to appear inside AI-generated answers. But once you start managing AI search visibility for multiple clients, the process quickly becomes complex.

Manually checking platforms and stitching together reports across tools isn’t scalable, and it doesn’t deliver the strategic insights clients expect. Agencies need a scalable way to track and report AI search visibility across all client portfolios without relying on manual workflows and scattered data.

This shift is driven by the rapid adoption of AI‑powered search and answer experiences, in which assistants synthesize results rather than just listing links. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is how brands respond to that change, structuring content and authority signals so they’re the sources AI systems choose to cite inside their answers. As AI continues to reshape the product discovery journey, brands that ignore answer‑layer visibility risk becoming effectively invisible, even if they still rank in traditional SERPs.

This guide walks you through how to accurately track AI search visibility for agencies, and the right tools to do it at scale.

Why AI Search Visibility Is Hard to Track for Agencies

Your clients are already asking questions such as:

• "Are we appearing in ChatGPT answers?"
• "Which AI platforms are mentioning our brand?"
• "How do we compare to competitors in AI search?"

These are urgent client concerns, especially with reports that, as of January 2026, Google search results are down 33% globally. When agencies fail to monitor AI results, it leads to poor reporting, which limits your client’s ability to make informed decisions about content strategy and positioning.

Here’s why AI search visibility for agencies fails:

Fragmented data

If you’re handling one client, the AI search reporting process might be easier. But once you start scaling, you need a centralized workflow. Most marketing agencies have to track queries from AI-powered apps like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, Claude, and Google’s AI Overview.

If you have a manual system with scattered spreadsheets and decks, it eventually becomes unsustainable. Clients expect clear dashboards that show visibility trends, competitive positioning, and ROI.

Inconsistent Metrics

Without standardized AI visibility measurement, it becomes impossible to compare client performance. You need a reliable tool to help you quantify month-over-month improvement and measure GEO metrics, including brand visibility, domain citation rate, AI web crawls, and URL mention rate.

Time-Intensive Manual Checks

At the end of every reporting period, your marketing team has to collect brand visibility results from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI. Going through these sites manually while capturing screenshots is time-intensive. Your team could be using that time to focus on other key areas of the business.

Even if you capture the data manually, it’s still challenging to extract actionable insights. You need to know which content formats perform best and the sources that AI engines cite most often. Manual tracking rarely surfaces these patterns.

How Does Lantern Help Agencies Track AI Search Visibility?

Lantern is an AI search analytics platform that helps brands understand and improve their visibility in AI-generated answers across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and other major AI systems. We track brand mentions, citations, sentiment, and AI search traffic to help marketing and product teams optimize their presence in the age of generative AI.

Instead of juggling multiple spreadsheets and screenshots, agencies can use the Lantern AEO dashboard to centralize information. You can use this as a competitive differentiator and package Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) services as a package for your customers.

Key Features of Lantern that Help Agencies Scale

Each feature in Lantern is designed to solve agency-specific problems and deliver measurable outcomes.

Portfolio & Client Visibility

The Lantern AEO dashboard for agencies provides visibility into all clients from one place. With Lantern, you can see how each brand appears across major AI search systems. This way, your account managers can instantly identify which clients are thriving in AI search and which need immediate attention without logging into multiple tools or compiling data from various sources.

So the next time a client asks, “How are we doing in AI search?" the answer is seconds away.

AI Search Traffic

The AI Traffic dashboard page tracks how much website traffic originates from AI-generated answers across platforms. Lantern automatically monitors this data, removing the need for manual tracking.

Agencies can report on citation frequency, brand mentions, sentiment, AI-driven referral traffic, and conversion trends over time. When renewals approach or clients question your value, you can demonstrate that AI search drove X visits and Y conversions within the last quarter. This attribution capability transforms AI visibility into a measurable revenue driver with clear performance metrics.

Action Centre Alerts

Action center alerts notify agencies of significant changes, such as sudden drops in visibility, new citation opportunities, or emerging trends across AI platforms. Once you receive these notifications, you can address the small issues before they escalate into a crisis.

For instance, you can use the information to refine the content strategy when you receive an alert on new trends to keep your clients competitive.

Citations

Citations show which sources AI platforms rely on when generating answers. Lantern enables you to extract the URL and domain citation rates and use this information to determine your digital PR strategies and content partnership opportunities.

In addition, if your client's competitors are cited more frequently in some industry publications, you'll know which sources to target.

Content Studio

The Lantern Content Studio provides structured frameworks for creating AI-optimized content based on what performs best across platforms. This feature helps agencies move to data-driven content strategies.

For content teams and strategists, this means understanding which formats, structures, and topics generate the most AI citations for each client. With this information, you can:

• Build editorial calendars based on the AI search results
• Identify content gaps where competitors dominate to help you create better resources for your clients

Core Considerations When Evaluating AI Visibility Platforms

Not all AI search analytics platforms are built for agency workflows. When evaluating solutions, you need to prioritize these factors:

• Multi-client architecture: Find a platform that allows you to manage multiple clients within a single account. You need a scalable tool that provides customizable reporting for each client.
• Comprehensive platform coverage: You need a tool that tracks visibility across all major AI engines your clients' audiences use, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, and emerging platforms.
• Reporting capabilities: Before subscribing to a platform, check whether it can generate client-ready reports.
• Strategic support: When starting AEO services, you need strategic guidance on interpreting data and developing optimization strategies to accelerate your learning curve.

The Bottom Line

The switch to AI search is happening at scale. Therefore, your marketing agency needs to evolve from traditional search to capture these new leads. But to demonstrate value to your clients, you must be properly equipped with the right tools. Working with an AI search analytics platform like Lantern provides real-time insights and actionable reporting for your clients.

As your client list increases, you can automate the process and use Lantern’s AI Search optimization for agencies to create proactive content strategies.

If you’re ready to see how your brands appear across AI search platforms today, start with a Free AI Visibility Report and get a clear baseline of where your clients stand.